Within the last decade, drought conditions have hit the Southeastern U.S., the
Midwest, and the Western U.S. According to the August 25, 2015, U.S. Drought Monitor, moderate to exceptional drought covers 29.5% of
the contiguous United States, a slight increase from last week’s 29.4%. The
worst drought categories (extreme to exceptional drought) also increased from
9.4% last week to 11.0%.

(See Figure 1 to right)

Global warming worsens drought as the temperature of the atmosphere increases
and the irony is the water that evaporates from a drying region often falls to
inundate someplace else.

The prolonged drought in California, which is the world’s eighth-largest
economy, now in its fourth year, has cut supplies of water used to be available
to irrigate crops.

In July 2015 the state ordered farmers to stop pumping water. The wells on
California’s farms have been pumping more water out of the region’s aquifer than
is replenished by rainfall, so that the land of the Central Valley is actually
sinking. The resulting damage to the aquifer is permanent, reducing its capacity
to hold water if and when rainfall returns.